Syria: Erdogan warns against attacks on Suleyman Shah tomb

15-man garrison of Turkish enclave near Aleppo could be at risk

(ANSAMed) - ANKARA, AUGUST 8 - Manned by 15 Turkish soldiers on
twice-weekly rotation, the mausoleum of Suleyman Shah has been
decreed a Turkish enclave within Syria since the 1921 treaty
that sealed the deal between the two nations.

But now the Turkish government is worried about possible attacks
against the tomb of the grandfather of Osman I The Great,
founder of the Ottoman Empire. Located in the bucolic village of
Kara Kozak, on the banks of the Euphrates river, the mausoleum
is just 50 kilometers from the embattled city of Aleppo, where
Syrian rebels and government forces have been clashing fiercely
for weeks.
''The tomb of Suleyman Shah and the land that surrounds it are
Turkish territory. Any act of aggression against it would be an
attack on our territory and NATO territory,'' Premier Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said on TV on Wednesday.
Syria-Turkey relations have been problematic ever since the
downing in late June of a Turkish Air Force jet off the coast of
Syria. Turkey supports the Sunnite rebels in Syria, whose
regime, it says, supports Kurdish insurgents, who recently
launched an offensive in Turkish Kurdistan.

Turkey fears ''attacks or provocations,'' Hurriyet daily wrote
on Wednesday, and the premier's publicly televised warning may
be due to intelligence from pro-Assad militias, or even to
sabre-rattling by jihadist elements among the rebels.
Nothing has yet altered the daily routine of the soldiers
guarding the Shah's mausoleum, which is 25 kilometers from the
city of Mursitpinar, just across the Turkish border. Supplies
still arrive regularly from the city of Sanliurfa, in
southeastern Turkey, and the men still follow their routine of
raising the flag, presenting arms, and keeping an eye on the
occasional pilgrim or visitor.

Withdrawal from this sleepy enclave sacred to the memory of
Turkey's imperial past is unlikely under the current Erdogan
administration, which aims to restore the country to its
erstwhile status as a powerful player between Europe and Asia,
according to Turkish commentators. (ANSAMed).